Ethiopia - Shantawene Gatta Anaerobic

Daye Bensa Coffee is the 2022 2nd Place Winner of the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence.
Brothers Asefa and Mulugeta Dukamo started the company with one small office and a single washing station, and the vision to uplift the lives of coffee farming families in their hometown, Daye Bensa, Sidama. While the natural environment at altitudes exceeding 2000 masl was conducive to growing high-quality coffee, enabling infrastructure to process and market it did not exist.

Together with his brother Mulugeta Dukamo, he would find a way to overcome this obstacle by setting up wet and dry mills at strategic locations and, not long after, their own exporting company. Now they have 71 washing stations, 11 dry mills, and three farms, with work in progress to expand to neighboring areas Guji, Bale, and West Arsi.

Gatta Farm is nestled in a scenic spot at the center of Shantawene Village. It is surrounded by rivers and sits amid an indigenous forest, where trees are reportedly more than 200 years old. To uphold the fertility of the soil and maintain the naturally shaded areas, Daye Bensa Coffee consults with the Ministry of Agriculture and plants shade trees.

The farm is also the site of the Daye Bensa Coffee School, which is focused on developing coffee processing and quality control professionals. Like all their out-growers’ farms, Gatta Farm is verified as Organic, C.A.F.E PRACTICE, UTZ, and a part of the Rainforest Alliance.

Daye Bensa Coffee is one of Ethiopia's Top 5 Coffee Exporters. They supply 7,500 tons annually to 25 countries. Unlike others, they produce their own coffee on this massive scale and operate a relationship-based model with farmers, buyers, and other producers, allowing them to directly influence and improve their coffee's quality.

With Kenean Dukamo, Asefa’s son and second generation leader, on-board Daye Bensa looks to build on their COE win by creating a division focused on "intentional coffees.” They are also looking at creative collaborations with outside sectors like the arts or winemaking.

‘Ethiopian heirloom’ is the general term commonly used to identify coffee originating from Ethiopia. It covers two classifications: Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) varieties and regional landrace varieties. JARC varieties were developed and released to improve the productivity and livelihood of smallholder coffee farmers and boost the country's coffee industry.

They are promoted and bred because of their good quality when grown at the recommended elevations, resistance to or tolerance of adverse elements, and adaptability to diverse environments. There are 40+ JARC varieties comprised mostly of pure line selections and a handful of hybrids. Regional landraces, meanwhile, are varieties that propagate in the wild, without regulated interventions.

74110, 74112, and 74158 are JARC varieties whose combined flavor potential we have grown familiar with in our years of working with Daye Bensa. For our third partnership anniversary, we curated the post-harvesting parameters to create Gatta Warm Anaerobic in our Competition Series. Since it underwent a period of fermentation under the sun, the cup gave a more winey character, prominent fruit notes, and brighter acidity.

In this Gatta Anaerobic lot, the 72 hour anaerobic process in a shaded area allowed for the coffee’s character to be directed more towards florality, tempered yet still complex acidity, and delicate sweetness.